Saturday, June 30, 2012

Governor Bobby Jindal Puts the "NO" in NOLA

I don't like to brag, and I'm not always correct, but I got one prediction right this past week when I told my husband and daughter that I was absolutely sure of one thing: Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana would be the very first politician to say that he didn't want any stinkin' Obamacare for his state.

And sure enough . . .he's been saying "NO" all over the place. Anyone who has ever taken child psychology or had a toddler in the house remembers "The No Stage in which a child who wants independence suddenly reacts to every question with that word. Governor Jindal wants his state to be so independent that he says to "NO" without even thinking of the consequences, much like a half-awake toddler with no responsibilities. Frankly, if I had a Governor like that I would be planning a move to another state.

(Oh wait . . . sometimes he says yes - remember the Gulf Oil Spill? And if there's a hurricane, he'll be right there criticizing Obama for not helping them enough. Oy. But the rest of the time it's "NO!")

If Jindal is just saying "NO!" to win friends and influence people in the Republican Party, that isn't really working either. On Friday, the day after the Surpreme Court gave the green light to the President's healthcare plan, Bobby Jindal flubbed up on a Republican Party Conference Call by calling the program "Obamneycare," a slur left over from the primary that fuses together Obama's plan with Romney's in Massachusetts (on which Obamacare is based).

Really I think Mr. Jindal needs to say "NO" next time a microphone is shoved into his face.

"It really raises the question of what's next, what's allowable," Jindal said. "Taxes on people who refuse to eat tofu or refuse to drive a Chevy Volt ... this whole ruling I think is ridiculous. It's a huge expansion of federal power."

and

"We're not moving forward with the exchanges," Jindal said. "Instead, we're going to do everything we can to defeat President Obama, get rid of ObamaCare."

Here in Louisiana, we've not applied for the grants, we've not accepted many of these dollars," Jindal said. "We're not implementing the exchanges. We don't think it makes any sense to implement Obamacare in Lousiana. The next opportunity we have to get rid of this law is to get Governor Romney elected, and I absolutely believe that he will be elected in November, and one of his first actions will be to repeal and replace this law."

The Affordable Care Act requires states to have exchanges. A state has several options: It can build the exchange itself, or it can collaborate with the federal government to build it, or it can let the federal government run it. The state has to tell the feds what path it has decided to take by mid-November. If the state does not want to run its own exchange, or collaborate with the feds to run it, the feds will begin setting up the exchange themselves in January.
If Jindal is serious about not implementing an exchange, the latter course is what will happen under the law, says Kathleen Stoll, the deputy executive director at the pro-Obamacare Families USA.
“If the state hasn’t moved forward, at that point, the feds have to come in to run the exchange to protect the citizens of Lousiana,” Stoll says. “The irony is that Jindal has made a choice to waste time and available federal dollars he could have used to build a state exchange uniquely tailored to his vision and the needs of the people of Louisiana.”
Of course, Jindal is probably banking on Obama losing the election, and Romney fulfilling his promise to repeal Obamacare on day one of his presidency. But that’s a pretty big gamble.